Separatist officials and Russian news agencies reported several attacks by Ukrainian artillery, including on a market. Russian news agencies later reported that a shell fell on a maternity hospital in the city of Donetsk, causing a fire and forcing staff to send patients to the basement. There was no independent confirmation of any of the attacks and Reuters could not confirm whether they took place. There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv to the reports. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported that separatist officials had reported five dead. Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin has vowed to mobilize more Russian forces to confront Ukraine. read more Russian agencies say one child was among the dead and at least 22 people were injured. On Monday night, citing a Russian correspondent, they reported the bombing of the maternity hospital. “Thanks to the quick action of the staff, there were no injuries,” the RIA news agency reported. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said officials had seen reports of the attack at the hospital. Firefighters extinguish a fire in the central market Maisky after recent bombings during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in Donetsk, Ukraine, June 13, 2022. REUTERS / Stringer
read more “This is extremely worrying,” Dujarric said. “Any attack on civilian infrastructure, especially health facilities, is a clear violation of international law.” The Donetsk News Agency earlier showed photos of stalls burning in the Maisky market and several corpses on the ground. “We had a hit in the market – there were a lot of people here,” Jan Gagin, an adviser to the self-proclaimed separatist government, told the RIA news agency. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that the main direct reason for what he considers a “special military operation” in Ukraine is to protect the Russian-speaking areas of Donbass from persecution and attack by Ukraine. Ukraine has systematically denied that it carried out attacks in the two regions, the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk, where separatists seized large tracts of land in 2014. Ukraine and its Western backers say Russia is waging an unprovoked war against a sovereign state. Russia denies targeting civilian sites in its military action, although the invasion has claimed thousands of lives and destroyed entire Ukrainian cities. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Guy Faulconbridge in London and Ronald Popeski in Winnipeg. Additional References by Michelle Nichols in New York. Editing by Peter Graff, Alison Williams and Michael Perry Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.